Spring Break is Upon Me-Oh Happy Day!

As I finish up my projects and papers and prepare for a test during finals week, my mind is inexorably drawn towards the loveliness that is spring break. And of course, finalizing my spring break plans. I know what I’m writing, but what am I reading?

Tentatively, this pile. Yes.

Pictured:

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson (in-progress)

What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire by Charles Bukowski (in-progress)

That’s a good lookin’ pile of books you got there! I read “Divergent” a few months back and was surprised to find I’d enjoy it more than anticipated. YA has been abominably disappointing lately, so it’s always refreshing to read an author who isn’t underestimating her audience in the way of vocabulary and character development.

If you haven’t checked out Laini Taylor’s “Daughter of Smoke and Bone”, I would recommend that one as well. If we’re talking ALL time favorite books, however, I cannot leave a comment without singing praise for Diana Gabaldon’s “Outlander” and Sarah Allen Addison’s “The Sugar Queen”.

I’ve heard good things about Gabaldon’s books! I recently bought Outlander for a friend, but she didn’t like it-first person I’ve heard of who hasn’t! I’ve been seeing recommendations for Daughter of Smoke and Bone around the web and it looks interesting! What is the sugar queen about? I admit to having a giant soft spot for YA 🙂 Right now I guess I’m recommending The Fault in Our Stars, the Hunger Games, and the Gone series (also pretty good dystopia) Also scott westerfield’s uglies series is wonderful- not new, but definitely thought-provoking.

Really? She didn’t like it?! Your friend and I should never meet . . . I fear we would loathe each other. Totally kidding. My favorite part about being a writer, actually, is that not everyone is going to collectively agree on what makes “Good writing” good. I am prepared for people to hate my book, just as people have — though, it dumbfounds me — hated Gabaldon’s series, I suspect. You can’t win them all, but the ones you do will love you forever. Avid readers are a loyal brood.

The Sugar Queen is about so very many different things; it would be hard for me to pick a reference point. I can tell you it’s magical realism. Beyond that, the story follows two women, one of which is an junk-food-a-holic, who’s constantly berated by her jaded mother and hiding a person in her closet, the other, a baker, is stalked by books. 🙂 I assure you it’s better than I’m making it sound. There is wonderful love-story surrounding both women (I’m a sucker for a good love-story), and at the end, you feel that sense of wholeness a good book imparts upon you at its conclusion.